Grants:Project/Rapid/Fouadas/AOOM

AOOM Wikipedia Workshops are run by volunteers of the Art on our Mind project which researches and presents knowledge about South African women-of-colour artists and creatives online. The workshops are open to the public, they aim to train participants in Wikipedia editing so as to create entries on the individuals showcased by the project on Wikipedia.

Collaborate with a growing network of regional institutions and stakeholders regionally.

In this context, this initial series of Wikipedia Workshops aims at:

Building a community of Wikipedia editors and recruit new editors.

Inviting experts to train essential skills which are needed to create entries for South African creatives on Wikipedia, among others: audio-visual recording, preparing oral interviews as valid resource of knowledge, working with Wikidata and Wikimedia (e.g. OTRS).

Inviting representatives of arts and culture organisations in South Africa to discuss how to access archives to be able to retrieve further information on creatives.

Assigning Wikipedia entries to be created and mapping of existing entries which need editing.

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

We are planning to run 12 Wikipedia workshops (2 hours) over the next 10 months: 12 July 2019, 2 August 2019, 23 August 2019, 20 September 2019, 11 October 2019, 25 October 2019, 7 February 2020, 28 February 2020, 20 March 2020, 3 April 2020, 24 April 2020, and 15 May 2020.

Additionally, we will invite a Wikipedia expert (from Art+Feminism or WikiLovesWomen) to give a presentation and run a Wikipedia Workshop at the African Feminisms conference (Afems, 5-7 September 2019).

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

The workshops are open to the public and take place at Wits Writing Centre, which is open to students from all faculties. The aim is to involve not only students but also creatives outside of academia. Therefore, workshops are announced on social media and relevant arts and culture websites, such as VANSA.

Creatives in South Africa engage in research which informs their artistic practice. Most importantly, they are engaging with South African art collectives which were active during the anti-apartheid struggle, such as Mihloti, Mdali, or MEDU Art Ensemble. An exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery on MEDU in 2008 had a huge impact on young creatives. At the same time, it is difficult for local collectives to disseminate their research, such as the publication edited by South African artist Clifford Charles Lihlo la tsa setso. A Gauteng Directory of Arts Groups & Debates on Cultural Life. Johannesburg, 2000. We recognize that Wikipedia has the widest reach to inform the public about creatives and art and culture organisations which remain under-researched and -represented.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

We make use of the seminar room at the Wits Writing Centre (WWC) as in-kind funding, and use projectors from the Wits School of Arts (WSOA) in our sessions as in-kind funding. The invited speaker, Isla Haddow-Flood (user:Islahaddow), will present the work of Wiki Loves Women during Afems 2019 Conference (which is part of the Art on our Mind project), and we will use the conference's administration resources, space and technical equipment).

Fouad has organized and supported edit-a-thons in the past. They're doing great work in South Africa and our community could use more of their SA based events. McKensie Mack (talk) 18:43, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia ZA supports this grant application. One of our board members has been helping Fouad out with his edit-a-thons in Johannesburg and we feel this is an important effort that helps grow the editing community. --Discott (talk) 11:19, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

I support Art on our Mind and Fouad organising edit-a-thons as they did in the past and should be able to do so in future. They're doing great work in southern Africa and encourage new editors from different backgrounds, which is necessary and enriching for the whole community and content on Wikipedia. We worked together in Johannesburg for an A+F edit-a-thon, which was a great experience. Elena Patrise